France: Popular Culture

France: Popular Culture, Caricature, Festivity Popular culture, caricature, and festivity became more intimately
involved in the revolutionary process in 1848 than during 1789 or 1830. A generation of historians has validated
Maurice Agulhon's statement that "folklore was ... perhaps more alive in the middle of the nineteenth century
than it has even been in ... French history." The 1848 revolution also occurred during what can be described
as the golden age of French caricature, when Daumier, to cite only the most accomplished, was at the height of
his powers. Revolutionaries, especially in the countryside, but also in the towns, used the sociability, festivity,
and the crowds created by popular culture to bring their political message to the populace. Their vision of a
social and democratic republic with a high degree of mutualism complemented the communal solidarities of traditional
life. Almost all the folkloric forms of association such as the charivari, carnival, the
'farandole', fairs, and 'veillées' became infused with political purpose. At
the same time pamphlets, prints, brochures, songs, newspapers, lithographs, and almanacs also used the motifs
of popular culture. Finally, the distance between politics and popular culture was also often bridged by the
transformation of popular notions of Christianity into the dem-soc ideology. In this instance Christ became
the first proletarian and his struggle one for social justice.

From its inception, the 1848 revolution drew on folklore and festivity. Historians have long located the
immediate origins of the revolution in the banquet campaign of 1847-1848. Recently Alain Faure has emphasized
that the February days (the 22nd through the 24th) in Paris unfolded within the context of the celebrations of
Mardi Gras. After the triumph on the barricades, Paris remained in a festive atmosphere for almost
a month, with most shops closed and the streets filled with people planting liberty trees and singing the
Marseillaise and the Ça ira. In provincial cities too, such as Lyon, we also
see festivity fusing with revolution. In this city on the Rhone a drinking society, the Voraces,
played a leading role throughout the revolution transforming, itself first into a paramilitary unit and then
into a secret society.

Caricature also blossomed in the opening festive months of the revolution. As in 1789, 1814, and 1830, a
revolution or a change in government entailed the abolition, temporary in each case, of censorship. The new
freedom caused a deluge of journals devoted to visual political satire. During 1848 alone at least eight new
caricature journals appeared, equaling the number of caricature journals established in over a decade. The
most important and daring of these was La Revue comique, which featured Daumier. Caricature was so
popular and powerful because it fused political and folkloric images in a ichnographic mode that appealed equally to
the literate and the still substantial semiliterate and illiterate sectors of the French population. One of the
most important caricature journals of the nineteenth century, Le Charivari took its name from one
of the classic popular rituals of village life that castigated deviants and outsiders.

Newspapers and almanacs also heavily relied upon the folkloric medium to spread the new republican and socialist
message. One of the most influential newspaper editors and almanac compilers was Pierre Joigneaux. His paper
Feuille du village, which started in October 1849, was especially effective in combining folklore
with new republican and socialist ideals.

In general, urban forms of association, such as clubs and electoral committees, were much more explicitly political
than their rural counterparts. This contrast stems not simply from a greater folkloric component in rural France
but also the product of governmental strategies of repression which first focused on the cities. By the time the
"party of order" turned its attention to the countryside, the republican left had learned to hide its propaganda
and organizational work under the cover of folklore. Some aspects of this popular culture were ideal as means
of indoctrination. These included such sociable occasions as fairs, chambrées, (private clubs
usually in semi-urban southern villages), veillées, taverns, and cafés. Others were well
suited for mobilization. Charivaris, dances, group singing or music playing, parades, and demonstrations usually
drew a large group that could be used to make a collective statement. Still other aspects of popular culture could
be either individual acts of defiance or collective statements of values. These included poaching and wood gathering.

After the repression of the June Days (June 22-26 1848) in Paris, the ascendent "party of order" targeted first
formal political associations and then, by the summer of 1849, focused on folkloric and symbolic means of expression.
The repression of caricature in newspaper was swift and efficient. La Revue comique was suppressed
in December 1849, while the renewed press tax, as of July 1850, helped force other periodicals, such
Punch à Paris, La Silhouette and La Caricature into bankruptcy.
Le Charivari fell under the blows of mounting repression in May 1851. The counter revolution was much
less successful, at least until the coup d'état of December 1851, in suppressing popular culture and folklore.
Starting in the summer of 1849 governmental authorities focused on symbols
nd traditional sociable gatherings. Red flags, caps, ties, and belts were now suppressed whenever possible. Charivari,
veillées, chambrées, and cafés were also subject to increasing harassment
or closure. However, repression often had the paradoxical effect of politicizing more completely these folkloric forms
of expression.

The conjuncture of a rising wave of folkloric expression and political mobilization was one of the unique elements of the
1848 revolution in France. The marriage between popular culture and politics permitted a broader and more rapid diffusion
of modern ideologies because of the lack of literacy among a substantial percentage of the French population. Folklore and
popular culture connected modern forms of political expression and organization and traditional habits and customs of the
French people. However, after 1848, many of these folkloric expressions steadily declined. For example, the
charivarideclined as an important vehicle of protest and the veillées ceased to be a vital part
of village life. Although cafés and caricature remained extremely vital, by 1900 the national political
consciousness had largely dispensed with traditional folkloric forms of village life.

W. Scott Haine

Bibliography

Goldstein, Robert Justin. Censorship of Political Caricature in Nineteenth-Century France. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University
Press, 1988.

Bezucha, Robert J. "Mask of Revolution: A Study
of Popular Culture during the Second French Republic," in Roger Price, ed., Revolution and Reaction: 1848 and the Second
French Republic. London and New York: Croom Helm and Barnes and Noble, 1975.